Houses to Sprout on Nursery’s 600 Acres : Development: One of the world’s biggest purveyors of potted plants is moving out; a major California home-builder is moving in.

The Monrovia Nursery Co., one of the world’s largest wholesale commercial nurseries, has joined a major California home-builder on a plan to develop the nursery’s 600-acre prime agriculture site.

The project would be the largest development in the city of Azusa in about 30 years, city officials said.

Some work is currently under way, but the development is slated to fully begin in 1995--after the nursery relocates to a 1,600-acre site in central California, said David L. Linden, the nursery’s real estate spokesman.

“Ultimately, the entire nursery will be developed over a 10-year period, or longer,” said Richard A. Lewis, president of Lewis Homes Management Corp. “All we have now is an agreement to agree. We will work out the details later.”

Lewis said the parties plan to build a still-undetermined number of single-family homes and possibly a shopping center. Medical offices may also be part of the project. The blueprints, including the number of homes, will not be drawn up until mid-1992, he said.

The development is to be built around a Jesuit retreat and a 116-year-old cemetery, both now secluded in the midst of the nursery.

The property is within three jurisdictions--Azusa, Glendora and unincorporated Los Angeles County. But Azusa will probably seek to annex two-thirds of the county property, Lewis said.

Dan Watrous, Azusa’s senior planner, said the Local Agency Formation Commission has designated most of the land to be in Azusa’s sphere of influence, which means the city has the advantage when requesting annexation.

When the project takes root, the city will file with the commission, he said. But the property owners have to support the request, he noted.

“We haven’t seen anything of this scale in Azusa in many, many years. . . . We’re talking back in the 1950s and ‘60s, when the major tracts were developed,” Watrous said. “We’re pretty excited.”

After World War II, Azusa was transformed from a small farming town into a thriving city, complete with a brewery, manufacturing plants, traffic and smog.

But unlike nearby cities, Azusa’s bustling commercial activity fizzled into empty shopping centers and vacant lots. The brewery, for instance, was sold to Miller Brewing Co. and relocated next door, in Irwindale.

In the 1960s and ‘70s, many downtown businesses closed, and a large number were demolished and the property remains vacant. Several of the buildings that remain, or were replaced, now house pawnshops or gun shops. Many residents do their shopping at large malls out of town.

The proposed development, however, would increase the city’s tax base and population, which is now 41,562. The project is also expected to help revitalize the downtown area and Azusa Square, which has been lying dormant for years, Watrous said.

The city’s Redevelopment Agency has already attempted to spruce up commercial development with the expansions of the Foothill Shopping Center and the Price Club Center, he said. The Azusa Promenade shopping center was completed in April, 1990.

Watrous said the nursery project would provide a large number of single-family luxury homes to a city that now has the highest ratio of multifamily housing in the San Gabriel Valley. Fifty percent of the residences are multiple family units, most of them built in the last 15 years, he said.

The development is also sure to affect Azusa’s road, sewer and school systems. Roy Bruckner, Azusa’s director of community development, said it will probably be a year before the city actually knows what effect the development would have on its infrastructure.

Additional roads and other facilities, such as sewers, will be provided by the developer, he said. And if more schools are needed, the city would require the developer to set aside land for the sites. The school district would be responsible for financial support, he said.

Duane Stiff, superintendent of the Azusa Unified School District, said there will definitely be a need for more classrooms.

“Schools are all full right now,” he said. “We don’t have any money to build schools, or to acquire property. We would have to rely on state funding, or go to a bond issue.”

To a lesser degree, Azusa’s more affluent neighbor to the east, Glendora, would also be affected by the project.

The city has already annexed 27 of the acres in the proposed development, and 87 others are in the city’s sphere of influence.

Glendora city officials have had few discussions with the developers, Deputy City Manager Culver Heaton said. But any development would have to meet the city’s design standards, he said.

Meanwhile, the first phase of the joint venture is under way.

Lewis Homes is building Citrus Cove, a 37-home gated community just east of the nursery. The single-family homes on a five-acre site along Foothill Boulevard and Citrus Avenue that, until recently, held thousands of potted plants, will range in price from $246,000 to $279,000.

Construction of 40 to 50 more homes on the nursery’s property may begin in late 1992 “to test the market,” Lewis said.

But the major development will begin in 1995, after the nursery, which currently employs about 700 people, relocates near Visalia in the San Joaquin Valley. Nursery officials said the employees will be offered jobs at the new site.

The developers of the project and officials of the Jesuit retreat and the Fairmont Cemetery say they do not foresee any problems coexisting.

“Our intention is to stay,” said Father Gerry Robinson, who runs the 10-acre Manresa Retreat. “We’re negotiating an arrangement to preserve the peacefulness and quietness of the retreat. We may build a wall, or obtain some acreage. We haven’t worked it out yet.”

Robinson said he informed the developers that he would support only low-density housing. He said the nursery and the retreat have always been on friendly terms, adding that the nursery uses one acre of land owned by the retreat for free.

Elizabeth Shorey, president of the cemetery trustees, said she has no objection to the project--as long as the developers meet certain conditions, such as proper grading and building an access road and parking spaces.